


The Drabbles From the Dark Side

by schizoauthoress



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Death in general, Drabble Collection, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply at this time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 17:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schizoauthoress/pseuds/schizoauthoress
Summary: 1: Dark Means (Paul Bearer muses on his affinity for evil)2: Seeking Surcease (Mark Calaway [sort of] copes with surviving the funeral home fire)3: Convocant (The Undertaker POV)4: Such Things (Kane POV soon after debut)5: Rot (Matt Hardy has a question for 'Taker)





	1. Dark Means [Paul Bearer]

I walk in darkness, for darkness embraced me when all else shunned me. In the light, my flaws are obvious and I am repeatedly judged -- fat, ugly, stupid, weak.

Perhaps I am just as cruel, but at least I am honest about it. Shame is a fetter; guilt is a crutch. They are also my weapons of choice, alongside secret knowledge gained in dark places, by dark means.

Who commands demons, who directed the devil's favorite into his own son? Who shaped and molded a mindless zombie into the Lord of Darkness? None other than "the fat man", Paul Bearer!


	2. Seeking Surcease [pre-Taker, Mark Calaway]

I have been foolish. I have been angry. And the time I was angry and foolish both has haunted me ever since.

Nightmares -- of burning flesh, blackened bone, and blame -- are a constant I've tried to drink away.

There isn't enough whiskey in the world to drown out my little brother's screams; to banish the spectre of my father burning in his bed, to silence the guilt that speaks with my mother's voice, telling me to lie down and die with them. 

Sometimes, though... if the night's wrestling match was hard fought and hard won, I don't dream at all.


	3. Convocant [The Undertaker]

No man can walk on the dark side and return unscathed. Not even the Deadman. He who comes back is not he who died, though each time he died was by choice.

"You cannot kill that which will not be ended," he warned those who would challenge him. Rarely did they pay heed.

The Undertaker might admire such hubris, if it didn't wear down his chosen vessel so much. There is something uniquely human in striving so futilely against the eternal, in courting one's own destruction when seeking to destroy. 

In time, though, he will collect all souls. In time.


	4. Such Things [Kane]

Kane wanted his brother in agony. Good and evil, right and wrong, did not matter.

It was easy to take refuge in his hatred, and pretend that hatred left no room for grief or pain. For all Kane had endured in his life, he would make the Undertaker suffer in punishment. It was all Mark's fault, anyway.

Paul glorified Kane's monstrous acts, called him righteous for seeking revenge against his brother the Undertaker. Kane pretended his motivations were as simple as Paul presented, and no one questioned it.

He was a demon, a monster, a machine. Such things don't think.


	5. Rot [Matt Hardy, Undertaker]

" _Can_ souls rot?"

Undertaker glanced at the inquirer and said gruffly, "What?"

Matt Hardy regarded the Deadman with uncharacteristic seriousness, then elaborated, "Before Wrestlemania 14, you said the hounds of Hell would eat Kane's rotting soul. The idea came up again after Mideon's conversion. Was it mind games, or... ?"

"I say what I mean," Undertaker replied.

Matt frowned. "What does _that_ mean?"

"Well, it's not the same as 'I mean what I say'."

"Wait." Matt grinned, "Oh shit, you're quoting Alice in Wonderland."

The flicker of humor passed, and Undertaker affirmed, "One day, you won't have to ask. You'll know."

*-*-*-*-*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> based on the fact that Woken Matt Hardy referred to "Sister Abigail's rotten soul" in a recent promo (the March 12, 2018 package hyping 'The Ultimate Deletion').


End file.
